1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to an eye-drop container, and more particularly to a dispenser cap for an eye-drop container, wherein the dispenser cap not only is a cap for sealedly covering the dispensing nozzle of the eye-drop container but also functions as an eye drop dispenser that can maintain the eyelid of the user in an opened position to facilitate the alignment of the dispensing nozzle with the eye of the user during the application of the eye-drop medication.
2. Description of Related Arts
Eye drop medication is commonly used for eye disease treatment. Some eye drops are helpful for relieving eye discomfort such as the using of artificial tear to relieve the dryness of the eyes. Using eye drops is by far the most common way of delivering medication to the eye today.
Traditionally, an user has to unscrew the cap, hold the eye drop bottle directly over the user's eye with one hand and open his/her eyelids with the other hand. The user has to use at least one hand in direct contact with the eyelids to hold them opened which could run the risk of introducing bacteria into the eyes of the user. And in cases where eye drops are prescribed to treat either bacterial or viral conjunctivitis, if the bottle is not handled carefully or if the nozzle itself come in contact with the eye; the entire bottle would be contaminated, resulting in prolonged course of the disease and wasting the money spent to purchase the eye drop. Also, the small eye drop bottle is hard to hold, squeeze, and align with the eyes of the user. This is especially true among elderly or patients with tremor or shaky hands. The users have to maintain the eyelids in an opened position while they bring the bottle close to their eyes to instill the medication. It is hard to align the tip of the eye drop bottle with the eye of the user and control blinking while making sure that the nozzle tip of the bottle does not come in direct contact with the eyeball or eyelids so as to prevent contamination of the eye drop bottle and to make sure the medication does not miss the eyeball.
And with the prices of some of the glaucoma and antibiotic medications currently averaging more than one dollar per drop, a drop of medication missing the eyes of the patients means an increase in their monthly medical expenses and possibly a waste of our national health care resources. Also, since just about all eye drop bottles available today require the users to unscrew the caps off first, many users who are on multiple medications have ended up either placing the wrong cap back onto the wrong bottle causing possible cross-contamination, or simply lose some of the caps altogether. How to insert the eye drop properly without touching the bottle to the eyeball or eyelids could easily become a major issue in today's soft economy.
As an eye care professional myself, the applicant has personally witnessed cases where patients either have lost the caps or mistakenly put the wrong caps on different bottles, yet still continued using the medication even though the bottles clearly had been contaminated. Also because there are so many different categories of glaucoma medications on the market these days and each category has different dosing regimen and is represented by different color on the bottle cap, majority of the patients simply remember the medication by its cap color rather than the actual name of the glaucoma medication. So if the caps are not placed correctly back onto its matching medication bottle, these patients would end up using the wrong medication at a wrong frequency causing adverse reactions.
The applicant has also witnessed cases where either patients were too nervous to have anything come closer to their eyes and therefore couldn't get their eyes wide open enough to instill eye drop, or worse yet, the nozzle actually scratched the cornea causing a painful corneal abrasion. There is a common misperception that the eye drop has to land squarely on the eyeball in order to be effective. But the reality is, if the bottle can come from below the patients' line of sight and deliver the medication into the cul-de-sac area or the area behind the lower eye lids, it will still maintain its effectiveness but also relieve much of the nervousness of the users and most likely eliminate most accidental scraping of the eyes.
Several types of eye drop dispensers which is capable of opening the eyelids for instilling the eye drops are available in the current market. The user can purchase the eye drop dispenser as an add-on device to install to their own eye drop bottle so as to help maintaining the eyelids in the opened position and alignment with the eye when instilling the eye drops into the eye. Lots of patients have to take the eye drop several times a day. They need to carry the eye drop bottles with them to work, school, or other places. It is inconvenient to the users to bring both the eye drop bottle and a separate dispenser. The other drawback is the complicated operation of the current add-on eye drop dispensers. The users always have to first open the cap of the bottle, then put the cap aside, and finally install the dispenser onto the neck portion of the bottle. And it is during this installing procedure that the users could easily touch the nozzle accidentally and cause further contamination. Furthermore, how the add-on dispenser was stored after each use without contamination has yet to be focused.